The epidemic of potholes like this one are a frustration to us all, and West Sussex County Council’s own figures show 33% of A roads and 32% of B and C roads are substandard and these figures have got worse over the last three years, although they claim 96% of highway defects are repaired within the required timescale. Their highway maintenance programme is forecast to treat 300km of road when they are responsible for over 4000km and effectively the backlog is increasing each year.

At the same time West Sussex Highways are not the most efficient, whilst some of this relates to the “unprecedented” number of potholes reported -25000 for the year to date compared with 15,800 on average over the previous four years, there are too many incidents of botched and poorly supervised repairs.

The current work on resurfacing in the Noel Rise area is a case in point – lack of proper notification, misleading information and a contact phone number than doesn’t exist compounded by at least today no onsite supervisor to monitor the work or respond to resident issues.

As GB news put it drivers are “dealing with ‘biggest ever’ pothole backlog after years of falling repair funds” and even with the extra funding announced at the end of last year this does not fully restore previous cuts. Resurfacing now takes place, on average, less than once every 100 years, and the cost of the backlog of repairs to bring the network up to scratch is at just over £14 billion. As local authorities deal with an ageing network, it is no surprise to learn that 8,000 fewer miles of roads are classed as structurally ‘good’ than reported last year.